By: Indumati Eveningnight
Gran and his team came to Iron Mountain and saw the frontlines of the battle for the Ruby for Love on the other side of the Mountain; however, his business took him deep into the Mountain-town's borders. The dwarves saw them as hoomans and one of them thought they could be church officials so stopped them. The leader of the gate-guards said, "Halt, what is your business here?" Gran did his best to be polite and said, "I have a letter here from Mr. Lark." He then gave a green-coated letter. The gate captain recognized the seal. He then said, "The elves? But I heard their realm fell long ago. What do you mean by this?" He then opened the letter and read it and said, "I see. Hey, let them in." One of the operators of the worn gate then said, "But-" The captain then said, "It's fine. Let the King see them." The captain then however warned, "The guards will be going with you guys." Gran accepted silently and followed them deep through the cavern. It looked like the underground city was barely hanging on and had a lot of quick fixes and emergency modifications and the people were clearly scared and hurt and their gear was worn and broken from numerous battles, and the scraps and corpses lined the streets. Gran saw they had been a proud race...once, but their city was blasted out and clearly losing the battle with the church. The fortress that the King was in was secure, and was protecting many injured and sick people, along with housing many people who could fight and stand who were wearing worn, makeshift gear. As Gran entered inside, the guards and people eyed him suspiciously, wondering what business he could have.
The king of the dwarves was an old muscular man who was before a broken castle with worn tattering flags of red and gold and it was like there was a war not too long ago, and the guards were hanging on just barely. The king himself looked hired and stressed and eyed Gran with some suspicion as they approached. The King asked, "What brings you here, into Iron Mountain?" The guard presented him with the letter. The King then smiled as he read it and said, "Wait, you're a dungeon architect? I am glad the old elf still remembers me from so long ago. It also says you guys saved their people? How did you do that?" Gran then said, "I built a place to protect them and their key." The Dwarven King then said, "Hmm...it says you have some interesting technology and capabilities. But is it true that your companions are actually monsters?" Alucarda, Azure, and Maria dropped their disguises, and the guards were taken aback. The dwarven king laughed and then said, "Men, stand down. This man and his friends are here to help us on before of Lord Lark of the Elven Clan. I, Lord Lodestone, welcome you." Gran then said, "I have one more thing for you, Lord Lodestone the Mountain King." Lord Lodestone wondered what it could be, but was ready for anything. He then said, "What is it then?" Gran than opened the portal to the Dream-Space, and Ruri, Lord Lodestone's daughter, walked out of it. The guards immediately softened. The Mountain-King was surprised and breathed a sigh of relief before laughing heartily, "Can it really be true? Little Ruri?" Ruri ran up to him and they hugged and Lord Lodestone was truly happy. The Mountain-King then said to Gran, "Mister Gran, was it? How was it you found her?" Gran then told the Mountain-King about the Scorpion's Sting out in Granite Valley. Lord Lodestone frowned but was happy. He then said, "Those church bastards...They snatched her during their raid on the castle. I was pretty distraught when it happened to. They used cheap tactics and assassins to escape with her, too." He then patted Ruri's head and said to Gran and his friends, "Well, Mr. Gran, are you willing to work for us? To help us again? Of course, if you require tons of money, it's yours. After all, my people are more important to me then money." Gran, however, didn't care about that and signaled to Maria, "First, let's get your people patched up, since many of them are hurt." Gran also summoned some friendly "Angel Nurses" to aid in the healing efforts and had Maria handle healing everyone up. Gran then said, "I have noticed your architecture and your city's worn defenses. I would like to keep it as close to it as possible...with some improvements, if that's okay." The Mountain King then replied, "Do whatever you can, Mr. Gran. Just be careful-our enemies are also using Automatons on their side. Those blasted machines make up their main forces." Gran had Alucarda collect some Automaton samples from some of the scrapped machines to analyze how they work. Gran also asks about the environment. Lord Lodestone mentions the mines are a good place to hold off invaders and hide, but warned that the church had brainwashed some of his people so it became dangerous. Gran considered this for a moment and thought of something to address it. He also mentions the volcano not too far that the Dwarves opened up, but it's hot and dangerous there so it wasn't idea. Gran thought for a moment and then said, "In that case, it's perfect. I shall begin shortly." The Lord decided to observe the work. Gran also scanned the dwarves, noting their affinity for earth and fire and metal element, and noting their legendary love of crafting. Gran started brainstorming ideas and said, "I have some ideas. Of course, I want you guys to sign off on it first." Gran brought up a few sketches to start his ideas to the Mountain-King. The Mountain-King smiled and said, "Ooh you have some ideas, lad. Let's start with the city and see how it goes. If you're half as good as Lark says you are, of course you'll be allowed to expand." Gran nodded and begun work. He first said he had to "lay a couple of foundations first." before beginning.
Gran Mason sent Maria and Azure off to deal with the brainwashed dwarves, while he decided to send Alucarda to sneak into the main enemy base of the Protagonism cult to disrupt them. Meanwhile, Gran Mason started to make improvements to the city, reinforcing and repairing walls with experimental powerful rare metals and enchanted mythril that could respond and react to forceful blows, and repaired the broken city centers while making improvements to the forges for ease of use and handed some blueprints to the dwarven craftsmen to analyze, while giving some golem mech-suits and powerful magical digging and war machines meant to take advantage of the mountain environment as well as giving them flying devices similar to winged jetpacks and enchanted digging tools for both aerial units as well as making it easier to get rare materials from rock and stone. He also set up cannons and stable, explosive defenses to deal with intruders and invaders on the front lines and provided the dwarves with more firepower from various machines including powerful guns and laser axes. The dwarves were a bit doubtful at first, but when many of them saw the devices, they were amazed, especially once Gran showed them how to use them. In fact, they wanted to make improvements and replicate said devices and they seemed to appreciate that Gran was even making many of the things they once held dear easy and starting it all back up again. Gran also summoned various monsters like Gnomes, elementals of the Earth, and Salamanders, elementals of fire, to bond with them, while creating various creatures like golems such as the Great Legged Ones which resembled legs with a platform, and smaller, personalized ones that could be used for hauling huge amounts of material, while creating Mole People to work with the dwarves in their digging endeavors and who could sniff out trouble with it's danger sense, and also created fire breathing lizards with heat-resistant skin that were friendly and fierce both at once and could molt skin to create heat resistant mail. He also created large crystal-bearing elemental spherical defensive creatures that can regenerate if shattered and could regrow crystals that contained rare materials and could summon high grade metal and stone by it's own magic. And also venomous cave spiders that can spin ultra-sturdy thread while lurking in the shadow, glowworm like monsters that can send out sticky strings and act as a light source while having a mild hypnotic effect, cave bats that have single eyes that act as cameras that fire waves to confuse enemies while having the ability to turn invisible, cave canaries who can detect poison gases while acting as an alarm to call in allies, gaseous beings that act as a fuel source while having the ability to suffocate with poison and burn easily, dragon-headed stone guardians who act as firestarters and who can breathe out blistering hot flames, and even added security cameras and communication devices to the dwarves which they were impressed with for the practical and combat applications since it meant it would be easier to work and organize together. He taught many of the dwarves to bond with the monsters he made and how to meet their needs which they took to quickly. He also fixed up the roads and did it all while working with the people's aesthetics and what they once looked like while making it strong and solid to the point of being nigh-unbreakable. Gran was working tirelessly, but to complete what he needed, he needed progress in the tunnels to be made.
Meanwhile, Maria found church soldiers that were hiding in the tunnels, which thanks to her guidance ability and burrowing Gran's map ability, she was able to find their encampment. It looked heavily secure, with church officials whipping the dwarves so they would mine for gold and silver to feed the church's greed while some of the Protagonism officials were readying them with their own iron war machines to prepare for another attack on the city, which one of the Paladins responded, "It's a good thing we got approval from the higher ups to bring in the Death Beetles. Thanks to our dwarven friends, we can easily burrow through into the city and unleash our flamers upon them." The priest leading the team then said, "It's gonna be an epic surprise attack. We just need the Frontline Team to start the attack and coordinate this, since the dwarves are tough as shit." Azure, however, started raining down blue sleeping powder upon the city spread by sylphs in the wind. The Paladin saw it and said, "Hey, what is this?" The priest and the other church soldiers started to feel sleepy and collapse. The Paladin panicked and said, 'Impossible! How did they find us down here?! We need to contact our leaders-" but then he collapsed while he tried to run for the long-range communication device. The sleep mist also pacified the dwarven slaves so they wouldn't resist. Maria and a team of Killer Valkyries that Gran gave unto her moved in and started slaying the church officials, starting with Maria beheading the Paladin and then later stabbing the priest with a holy flame lance. Azure then undid the brainwashing collars on the slaves while using the sylphs to locate them all, and she managed to free them all. They awakened and regained their senses, and Azure introduced herself as an ally, and asked if they wanted to have some fun. The dwarves picked up what they could and said, "We would be delighted!" And then went around demolishing the church encampment and commandeering their war machines for their own use and touched and bombed the camp to the ground. The oppressors hiding in the tunnels never stood a chance due to their combined efforts quickly leading to the fall of the 2 other encampments since Azure acted as a debuffer and Maria lead the advance force while the dwarves moved in to free their brothers in arms and take down each one of them, which quickly led to them falling and all the dwarves being freed. Azure send Gran a message that it was clear. Gran then responded, "I hope Alucarda's doing okay on her end. Now, you guys meet back up at the dwarven city, yeah? And clear out any enemy stragglers along the way." Maria and Azure agreed.
Alucarda disguised herself as a demihuman slave that the soldiers overlooked because to them, they weren't people, and when the guards stopped her at the Colonel of the Guard's tent with, "Hey, what are you doing?" She said, "I must go to the colonel to give him pleasure." in as monotone a voice as possible. The guards, being obedient to a fault but disgusting, let her in saying, "Ah, in that case no problem." Good thing Alucarda used her charms to have a mild hypnotic effect so that they would comply. The colonel was an older man in red and gold armor who was busy with paperwork and thought to himself on seeing Alucarda that he would have "some fun with her." He put his arms around her to embrace her and she passionately kissed him as blood started to pour from his mouth and he started to lose life in his eyes but was so charmed by her looks that he didn't fight or resist. He shriveled up and became nothing but meat and bones and collapsed on the ground. Alucarda then hit him in a dimension of darkness to hide him and pretended to be him, while quietly activating the shadow portals from inside the camp and spreading a fog of darkness throughout it as daemonic servants and the undead poured out of the portals of darkness and started to slay each and every vile protagonism soldiers and knight in a bloody violent conflict. The whole camp was thrown into a panic, while Alucarda unleashed bats from the backline that fired rays of confusion from the tent causing mass panic to the guards and paladins, while Alucarda wondered around the camp all causal like and hurled never-ending fire into the War-Machines, large mechanical men and iron beetles equipped with drills and flamethrowers that were controlled by the Church of Protagonism were melted down from the inside and outside with fire that wouldn't go out as they burnt and melted and collapsed before her. After that, she would go to the various non-human slaves in the camp and take them into portals of darkness to free them of their mind control and take them somewhere safe while her and her minions cleaned up the rest of the "trash" in her eyes. A lone priest, who looked important was left and was captured by Alucarda. He said to her, "You...minion of the Dark Lord." Alucarda smiled a bit and said, "If that makes you feel better, you are free to believe it. Now, you want the key that the dwarves have. And I want information. What else do you have planned?" The priest was terrified and held up his holy symbol and said, "I rebuke you in the name of the Goddess of Creation!" However, the symbol didn't work on Alucarda and she advanced and grabbed his neck and held him up. Alucarda then said, "That's cute. Praying to a goddess to a goddess to save you while your own cult does evil. Now talk." The priest then said, "Blast you, you just want the keys for yourselves! But you won't get them! There's an A-Rank team heading into the dwarven city as we speak. They are a legendary team that once slew dragons and captured their princess! You won't beat them, you lowly daemon!" Alucarda laughed and smiled and said, "Is that all?" The Priest then said, "And our digging machines and dwarven slaves will attack the city as a diversion even. We'll get it before you can. And our comrades will be avenged." Alucarda then said, "I'm afraid that those machines and slaves have...already been dealt with." The priest was in shock. "What?" Alucarda then said, "As for your so-called A-rank team, my dear beloved boss shall meet them face to face. They'll never get that key. Your mission is a failure." The priest then said, "We'll see who has the last laugh, daemon." Alucarda sighed and blasted the priest in the stomach with a blast of dark magic. A quick and merciful death. Alucarda only hoped Gran could handle things on his end. Luckily, she decided to go back the Dwarven City to meet up with him, since her work on the enemy encampment was done.
Meanwhile, there was a red haired female knight with a nasty expression and a large muscular blonde haired man that towered and carried a large piece of metal as a weapon with him. They fought their way through the monsters that Gran Mason summoned, which they found a tough challenge and the blonde man asked, "What the hell happened in this place? I thought the church roughed this place up badly." The lady tensed up and said, "The dwarves haven't even been seen yet and I feel this place has gotten pretty dangerous. It's a death trap in these blasted tunnels now." The blonde man then said, "You don't think it could be the rumors...the return of the Dark Lord?" The woman sneered and said, "Why would the daemons be back and helping the dwarves though? I think it's a bunch of nonsense." Then a trap opened up to reveal a dwarf with a gatling gun that fired a hail of lead on them. The two adventurers were quick to dodge behind a rock. The lady then said, "It appears they improved their firepower somehow. They definitely didn't have that before." The man then said, "We should wait for a break in their attack. You got the fire magic ready?" She was already chanting the spell and hurled a massive fireball towards the dwarf which scored a direct hit, and the man then said, "Damn...they got a bit better." However, as they headed to the gate of the city, they were attacked by a flight pattern of heavily armed flying dwarves as well as one operating a giant steel golem machine. The man then said, "Holy moly, we're in for a rough time." The woman then said, "And we're already running out of healing and mana potions." The man replied, "This place has an entirely different vibe from what we heard about." The guards fired in formation upon them and the man tried to use the minigun he got earlier but it crumbled to powder in his hands somehow. He wondered how that could be, and the woman was covered him with firebolts and lightning magic to try and strike the fliers while the man charged in with his thin air attack to try and disrupt the enemy formation and then move in with his martial art, God Hand, against the golem-machine before him. However, when he hit it, it only dented it a little bit despite his full power, and the golem struck him with a mighty blow from it's ironclad fist which sent him flying into the woman. The man and woman recovered as the dwarves moved in and fired electromagnetic nets that zapped them with paralysis and slow. The man was surprised saying, "What? They're using status effects? They never did that before." Then he noticed a bunch of bats flying in from behind him coming from the cave that started biting into them and firing waves of confusion that made them dizzy and see things that weren't there while the woman blasted them away with fire and the man smashed one against his own club. The dwarves then unleashed fire upon them that struck and blasted their armor to shreds and hurt hard. Then the golem machine fired some shells that looked like bombs of some sort. The man quickly got into a defensive stance and the woman set up a barrier as they downed paralysis recovery potions so their movements weren't weakened and difficult. The woman charged up a big explosion spell while the man psyched himself up to greater power and blasted a wave of thin air that blew away the flying enemies and knocked them out, while the explosion spell hit the machine dead on. The two were tired already but hanging in there. However, that is when they saw the dwarf had summoned a salamander- a piece of the elemental lord of fire that was like a fiery flying lizard of flame, that absorbed the fire element spell. The woman was shocked, "They're working with monsters, using statuses, and they have elementals and strange new weapons and technology too? What the hell is going on?" The man then said, "Then I have no choice but to unlock my 4th Gate." He then began to glow with power and struck the earth making a quake wave that erupted with golden power that caused the golem to stumble and fall over in defeat. However, it took a lot of MP to cast that and put a strain on the man's body. The two then advanced in the city, but it was strange. Everything was fixed and seemed like someone had repaired it overnight. The woman then said, "The church attacked this place a couple of weeks ago, right? Why is it not in the state of the reports?" The two even came across a battle area in the center of the city where they ran in and got surrounded by walls of stone and energy. And the dwarven knight came down, with a remodeled bio-mechanical body and a massive set of flying arms made of the hardest stone and fire. The man then said, "Is that the Mountain-King? I thought the church broke him." The Mountain-King then said, "Tales of our near defeat were true, once, but we've come into something of a secret weapon." The woman shouted and yelled, "You sold your soul to the Dark Lord." The Mountain-King Lodestone stroked his beard and said, "The Dark Lord? Oh no, nothing like that. They were a simple dungeon architect. Gave us quite a boost and healed us quite nicely. Even returned my daughter to me too." The man gritted his teeth. What the cat-spy told his team was true. However, the man then said, "Well, it doesn't matter. Nobody can defeat the Black Horn Hunters! The strongest A-Rank team!" The man then started to charge up and unseal his 4th gate again and with blinding speed aimed a charged up hand of god right for the dwarven king ready to strike him down in his chest. However, he was blocked by one of the hands grabbing his hand. And the dwarven king twisted the man's arm until it snapped and started to rip. The man collapsed in pain. The red haired sorceress aimed a powerful ice element magic, Absolute Prison, right for the King. However, the King's arms appeared underneath her and did an uppercut which sent her flying and made blood fly and dislocated her jaw as she collapsed on the ground. The man panicked and said, "No, it can't be." He then moved back and held his broken arm and attempted to recover with chi to regenerate his arm, but the Dwarven King blitzed him and punched him with the flying arms repeated with heavy blows from every direction. The man used defensive buffs to hold it off but they still hit like a truck and he was certain he would be dead without the buff. Then the arms turned into guns and blasted him with a massive blast of fire that burnt into him and blackened him crispy. He held on, barely, while the woman recovered and aimed a Firebolt right for the dwarven king, only for the Mountain King's arms to block the spell by turning into a magical shield. The woman then said, "Who was the dungeon architect who did this to you?" The dwarven king laughed and said, "He calls himself The Architect. All I can tell you is he's a hooman with great power." The woman said, "Why? Why did he help you? I don't understand." The Mountain-King replied, "Just as a favor to an old friend of mine whom he also helped. You know, the High Elves who lost their home a while back due to greedy people just like you." The man then said, "Then, The Architect is responsible for The Great Forest Temple Dungeon being made too? Then we need to bring him to justice. But tell us, where is the key?" The Mountain King laughed and said heartily, "I'm afraid I'm not even the boss and this ain't the dungeon it's being held at right now. It's in the Iron Mountain Volcano Dungeon. He was kind enough to make use of such a hot, dangerous place for us. If you guys can't beat me, you'll never ever be able to clear that place. After all, I saw it myself. It's definitely an S-rank dungeon." The man gritted his teeth. The woman was in shock and said, "Impossible...a dungeon architect of that power would definitely be the return of the Dark Lord for sure." The dwarven king then said, "Now, shall we continue?" The dwarven king turned his flying rocky arms into axe blades and unleashed shockwaves that cut across the field that the two barely dodged and the blades swung towards the man, who dodged the swing of the axe and then was hit from behind by a fist that led into an axe swing that he ducked and rolled under and then a massive fist came down on him that slammed him into the ground and caused him to cough up blood. The woman tried to help, but the blades were coming after her and shooting large bullets at her now as they took on the form of a gun and her defensive barrier wasn't holding, and through the flames one fo the arms blasted at her, a fist came through the smoke and flame and struck her solid, making blood spray and caused her to fly into a wall. They were barely alive after all that. The man saw his partner had been knocked out and yelled, "Ophelia! No!" He then turned to the Dwarven King and then said, "I have no choice. I have to open the 5th gate." His body erupted in power and rage that sent shock waves across the battlefield, and he dashed forward at spend and attempted to launch a large glowing critical strike for the Mountain-King. However, the Mountain-King then said, "I have not even begun to take this seriously, let alone use the full power." The arms started to burn with muscles and moved at blinding spells and struck the man repeatedly. At first, the man was able to counter one of the fists with his own, only for his arm to give in to the solid material and be hit with a blow that dealt a satisfying and painful crack to his remaining hand. The man's power started to burn and hurt and make his body heavy as he was pummeled and sent flying into the wall of the arena where he collapsed, broken and badly hurt. The woman then tried to get back up, but her leg was broken due to twisting the wrong way. She pulled out a crystal and said, "Raul, we need to make a tactical retreat and regroup. We're unprepared for this. At this rate, he'll kill us for sure." Rual agreed and he and Ophelia escaped from the battlefield and ran to the church in the Capital as their save point. The Mountain-King was impressed. He then said, "Incredible. Gran's work really paid off. I gotta hand it to him, he sure made something interesting. I gotta find ways to make it go even further beyond and model an even stronger model for next time." He was excited at the prospect. He then contacted Gran and said, "You got the finishing touches done on the Iron Mountain Volcano Temple, boy?" Gran topped the dungeon off with a room with a fake illusionary key while the real room was protected by 4 hidden stone keys throughout the fortress and hidden behind a false wall. He then said, "I sure am." The dwarven king Lord Lodestone then said, "You guys should join us for a party later. It seems you guys really turned the tide for us. Of course, I look forward to a tour of the dungeon later." Gran then said, "In that case, I shall rejoin."
Gran's allies made merry and drank and partied the knight away with the dwarves and their love of strong alcohol while Gran finalized some final ideas and tweaks on his dungeon making map to the areas. Ruri approached him and said, "Hey, Mr. Gran? What are you doing? The party is about you, you know. My old man wants to see ya." Gran then said, "Just a few finishing touches. Anyway, I might as well see him. I heard he had quite the battle." He then went off to see Lord Lodestone, who presented him as the guest of honor with a big speech saying, "To our friend, Gran Mason!" Gran did a polite bow and wasn't used to the attention he was getting and said, "I am glad you are all pleased. If you guys need anything more, let us know, alright?" The people cheered for him and clinked their glasses in his honor. Gran then said, "Don't forget the hard work of everyone here. We all did our own part to defend the city." Lord Lodestone laughed and said, "Don't be so modest, boy! You and your friends brought back my daughter and restored our pride. Not only that, I got to kick butt just like in my prime even! I get the feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Also don't forget your reward. And I insist." Gran was presented with a whole trove of gold and silver and treasure. Gran at first was apprehensive about taking it, but Lord Lodestone insisted. Gran then said, "Thank you. Of course, I will do any repairs or additional work you need, of course." Lord Lodestone said, "Here here! For the great dungeon architect!" The people cheered louder and Gran's 3 allies took their bows and as the party died down, Gran and his friends quietly left, though Gran decided to make portals to the dream space for Both Lodestone as well as Lark and Robin and both of their teams. That way, they could meet in secret on the Ziggurat as well as have passage to each other's lands in a flash. Both the high elves and the dwarves started trading resources with both of their peoples again. Gran in the meantime focused on his next big projects for those he was protecting aboard the Zigguarat, since he needed to create dungeons for them too, and repeating the same process of rebuilding peoples' homes and lives and giving them a safe home to stay secure in, while defeating the church's plans. In fact, Robin and Lord Lodestone made him aware that the Merfolk were also suffering with the Church polluting their waters in a recent move to try and obtain the Sapphire of Wisdom. So Gran had a new goal. In fact, the Merfolk Civilization was at a lake near the Lamia's Caves, so he decided to knock both out of the park. Apophis was pleased to hear it though she was pretty happy with her role so far, having learned dark and poison element magic and having become a powerful lamia sorceress. Rose on the other hand, made Gran aware that the Underlands also had it own troubles with the church of Protagonism Church, and she asked if he could also help them too. Gran silently made a prayer to the Constructor. The Constructor, that naked mole rat guardian then said, "The Foundation has been built and the ball is rolling. What you've built is interesting. Keep it up, eh?" Luna then said, "A small step to restoring an era of peace and dreams and ending so many nightmares. In fact, I saw your good work is worth a bonus blessing." Luna cast a powerful spell upon him. Gran felt new power surge through him. He felt new ideas flood forth. The Constructor held his arms and gave him a shovel and said, "I wouldn't want to be left out." And Gran felt even more energy pour into him then previously. He felt tireless, even. Gran then started working on new ideas all at once, feeing he could work on them all at once, somehow developing parallel minds at once, and even building a machine in his office that could amplify it even further beyond the normal. He then said to his allies, "I have some new ideas and am ready to roll. Are you guys ready?!?" His team was excited af. Gran then laid out his new plan with a big world map before him and said, "Then let's begin the great expansion campaign." The team looked on and were excited about the future.
Meanwhile, at the Church of Protagonism base, the city's guild leader was meeting with the acting-head priest, along with the barely alive members of The Black Horn Hunters, Ophelia and Raul. Rual then said, "The mission to obtain the Ruby of Love was a failure." The priest was upset. He then went over the report. The spy said that the encampment was in ruins that was the primary point of attack, the tunnel team had been suppressed, and the dwarven city, which was expected to be a ruin, had somehow made a miraculous recovery, not to mention the report of the New Iron Mountain Volcano Dungeon that the key was now in. The priest asked, "How? We were winning. They got outside help from somewhere, but where?" Ophelia then said, "The Mountain-King mentioned a being known as The Architect. Someone who is very, very good at building dungeons. And who has access to monsters and technology that we've never seen before in this world. We suspect what you did. A new successor of the Dark Lord is in this world now. Also, we confirmed that this "Architect" also is responsible for building the Great Forest Temple Dungeon. None of the high rank adventurer teams have been able to conquer that one and recent reports suggest changes to it that are making it even more dangerous. And now, a second key has fallen into this "Architect's" hands. In fact, the dwarves are now thriving and far, far stronger than before and their city is pretty dangerous now, not to mention the dungeon, which is reportedly S-Rank." The acting high priest then said, "Then whoever it is, they're connected and are continuing to make improvements to their work to make them even harder and harder. And they've made allies, powerful ones. We need to alert everyone we know of the Architect and put out a bounty on them. Any information on them, of course, will be compensated heavily. If this Architect is the return of the Dark Lord herself, the whole world's order could be in dire straits. Especially if they're after more of our keys. Luckily, we have an idea where this "Architect" could be holed up at. The Valkyrie will be deployed there quickly and quietly. However, we have no idea what we're up against or how far the Architect's hand reaches. In fact, we will have to let the King know." The guild master then said, "Then we need Father Dual to give us more resources. We also need to train people to be wiser and stronger and smarter. This Architect guy sounds like they're no joke." The high priest decided to look through the records of who the Architect could be. It could be anyone. It could even be right under their nose. The spy whispered something his ear. Apparently, in the mountains, "New Moon" had disappeared. They recalled that a harsh sandstorm wiped up and they...vanished. The spy wondered if New Moon could be connected to the Architect. The priest then said, "Find out where they've gone. And make sure the information is accurate." The spy already suspected New Moon due to the fact that they're the ones who dealt with Bazza's gang and the dwarf princess disappeared somehow. Also reports said that the Dwarf Princess was back with her old man. The priest already had a prime suspect in mind. And so, the news spread and the capital started to send their assassin guild and inquisitors out to various territories to look for New Moon, who were suspected of being connected to the Architect.
End of Part 4